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THE OBLIGATIONS 

OF 

VICTORY 

BY 

William Howard Taft 

Ex-President of the United States 
"/ verily believe we are in sight of the Promised Land" 

An Address delivered at the Convention of the 
League to Enforce Peace, at Madison, Wiscon- 
sin, under the auspices of the University of 
Wisconsin, November 9, 1918. 



Published by 
LEAGUE TO ENFORCE PEACE 

Bush Terminal Sales Building 

130 West 42nd Street 

New York 



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THE OBLIGATIONS OF VICTORY 

By William Howard Taft 

THE international compact which is to follow this war is to be more 
ambitious than any ever made before. The world is larger, the 
nations are more numerous, the held of war has been greater, and 
the political changes are to be far more extensive than the world has 
ever known. 

The only peace comparable with this is that which was made after 
Napoleon's fall by the monarchs who constituted the Holy Alliance. 
That was a League of Nations, with a high sounding declaration of dis- 
interestedness and love of peace. It was a failure because the real pur- 
poses which governed its formation and life were wrong and unstable. 
It rested on the Divine right of Kings, and its objects were to recognize 
J.ynastic claims and to establish and maintain them. It took into con- 
sideration neither the interest nor the will of the peoples under the gov- 
ernments which it was setting up and proposed to maintain. After it 
had lived a few years, it became a by-word of reproach. 

The difference between the Holy Alliance and the League of Nations 
we propose is in the purpose and principle of its formation. Our League 
looks to a union of the democratic nations of the world, to the will of 
the peoples, expressed through their governments, as its basis and sanc- 
tion. It looks to the establishment of new governments by popular 
choice and control. It is to be founded on justice, impartially adminis- 
tered, and not on the interests of Kings or Emperors or dynasties. It is 
to rise as a structure built upon the ashes of militarism, and it is to rest 
on the pillars of justice and equality and the welfare of peoples. 

I have referred to the Holy Alliance not only to answer an argument, 
but also as a precedent to prove that a treaty of peace rearranging the 
map of Europe can not be made without a League of Nations. Think 
of what this present peace has to compass. We can realize it by consid- 
ering the points of President Wilson's message of January 8th, which 
make an outline of the terms of the peace which are to be fixed. 

Welfare of Backward Peoples 

In the first place, we are to have some disposition of the German 
colonies, in accord with the interests of the people who live in them. 

JUN 24 h)lb 



The Obligations of Victory 3 

Germany has made such cruel despotisms of her colonies that it is quite 
likely the Allies will insist that they shall be put under some other power 
more to be trusted in securing the welfare of backward peoples. Thus 
we are to set up a new government in East and West Africa, in Austra- 
lasia, in China, and in some of the islands of the Pacific. Then we arc- 
to deal with Russia. If we separate from her the Ukraine, and the 
Baltic Provinces and Finland, there are three or four new nations to 
establish. Great Russia is now under the domination of bloody anarch- 
ists, and we must free her and give to her good people the opportunity 
to organize and establish a free and useful government. This is a problem 
of the utmost complexity. In Austria we are to create a nation of the 
Czecho-Slavs, embracing Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia. We are to cut 
this nation out of the Dual Empire, and take it from Austria and from 
Hungary. We are to do the same thing with the Jugo Slavs on the south 
of Austria and Hungary and establish new boundaries there. W T e are to 
settle the boundaries of the Balkans. We are likely to give Rumania 
the Rumanians of Hungary and of Bessarabia. We are to establish a new 
state of Poland out of Russian, Austrian and German Poland, and we 
are to give this estate access to the sea. The fixing of these boundaries 
and the determination of the method of reaching the sea present issues 
of the utmost delicacy and difficulty. We are to determine the status 
of Constantinople and the small tract now known as Turkey in Europe. 
We are to fix the limits of Turkey in Asia, to set up a new government 
in Palestine, to recognize a new government of Arabia, to father, it 
may be, the creation of a new state in the Caucasus and to establish 
the freedom of Armenia. 

International Commission 

The mere recital of them is most convincing of the intricacy of 
these problems. The Congress of Nations will probably find it impos- 
sible definitely to settle them all. It will have to create Commissions, 
with judicial and conciliatory powers, able to devote time enough to 
make proper investigation and thus to reach just, defensible and prac- 
tical conclusions. When the boundaries are all fixed, when the innu- 
merable rights growing out of access to' the Baltic, access to the Danube, 
access to the Black Sea and access to the Aegean, together with rights 
of way across neighboring states for freedom of trade, are defined, with 
as much clarity as possible, there still will arise, in the practical opera- 
tion of the treaty, a multitude of irritating questions of interpretation. 
In fixing boundaries on distinctions of race and language, the Congress 



4 The Obligations of Victory 

will encounter the obstruction of racial prejudice and blindness to rea- 
sonable conclusions. Neither line of race nor of language is always clear- 
ly drawn, so that convenient and compact states may be established 
within them. To attempt in a great world agreement to settle the 
boundaries and mutual rights of so many new nations, without provid- 
ing a tribunal whose decisions are to control, and are to be enforced by 
the major force of the world, will be to make a treaty that will become 
a laughing stock. 

The New Map of Europe 

We know that we have got to rearrange the map of Europe, and, 
in so far as it is practicable in that arrangement, to follow popular 
choice of the peoples to be governed. But such a flowing phrase will 
not settle the difficulty. It is merely a general principle that in its 
actual application often does not offer a completely satisfactory solu- 
tion ; and after the Congress shall have made the decisions, sore places 
will be left, local enmities will arise, and if that permanent peace which 
justifies the war is to be attained, the world compact must itself con- 
tain the machinery for settlement of such inevitable disputes. In 
other words, we don't have to argue in favor of a League to Enforce 
Peace — the nations which enter this Congress can not do otherwise 
than establish it. It faces them as the only possible way to achieve 
their object. 

Germany and Austria and Bulgaria and Turkey are to indemnify 
the countries which they have outraged and devastated. Commissions 
must be created, judicial in their nature, to pass upon what the amount 
of the indemnity shall be, and then an international force must exist 
to levy execution if necessary for the judgment upon the countries 
whose criminal torts are to be indemnified. We must, therefore, not 
only have, as a result of the Congress, the machinery of justice and 
conciliation, but we must retain a combined military force of the Allies 
and victors to see to it that these just judgments are carried out. 
Moreover, the Congress can not meet without enlarging the scope of 
international law and making more definite its provisions. The very 
functions which the Congress is to exercise in fixing the terms of peace 
will necessitate a statement of the principles upon which it has been 
guided. That will lead to a broadening of the scope of existing prin- 
ciples of international law and a greater variety in their applications. 
Therefore, whether those who are in the Congress wish it or not, they 
can not solve the problems which are set before them without adopt- 
ing the principles of our League to Enforce Peace in its four planks 



The Obligations of Victory 5 

in our original platform — a court, a Commission of Conciliation, en- 
forcement of submission and a Legislative International Congress to 
make International Law. They will have to ereate such machinery for 
the administration and enforcement of the treat)- as to the central 
powers, the new nations created, and Russia. Having gone so far as 
they must, can they fail to extend their work only a little to include 
the settlement of all future differences between all the nations that are 
parties to the League? A League for such future purposes will be no 
more difficult to make and maintain than the League into which they 
are driven by the necessities of the situation. 

League Not Responsible for Extreme Views 
Now I want to take up some of the arguments made against the 
League. In the first place, a good many have created a straw League 
and have knocked it down without difficulty. They have attributed 
to us the views and principles held by extremists who perhaps sup- 
port our League, but whose extreme views we don't adopt or need to 
adopt. Thus it is said that we favor internationalism, that we are op- 
posed to nationalism, that we wish to dilute the patriotic spirit into a 
vague universal brotherhood. That there are socialists and others who 
entertain this view, and who perhaps support the League to Enforce 
Peace, may be true, but the assumption that such views are necessary 
to a consistent support of the League is entirely without warrant. I 
believe in nationalism and patriotism, as distinguished from universal 
brotherhood as firmly as any one can. I believe that the national spirit 
and the patriotic love of country are as essential in the progress of the 
world as the family and the love of family are essential in domestic com- 
munities. But as the family and the love of family are not inconsistent 
with the love of country, but only strengthen it, so a proper, pure and 
patriotic nationalism stimulates a sense of international justice and does 
not detract in any way from the spirit of universal brotherhood. 

No Interference with Internal Affairs 

Again it is said that in the League we injure nationalism by abridg- 
ing the sovereignty of our country in that we are to yield to an inter- 
national council and an international tribunal, in which we only have one 
representative, the decisions of questions of justice and of national policy. 
Sovereignty is a matter of definition. The League does not contem- 
plate the slightest interference with the internal government of any coun- 
try. The League does not propose to interfere, except where the claims 



6 The Obligations of Victory 

of right of one country clash with the claims of right of another. To 
submit such claims of right to an imperial tribunal no more interferes 
with the sovereignty of a nation than the submission of an individual 
to a hearing and decree of court interferes with his liberty. The League 
is merely introducing into the world's sphere, liberty of action regu- 
lated by law, instead of license uncontrolled except by the greed and 
passion of the individual nation. 

It is said that we are giving up our right to make war or to with- 
hold from making it. We can not take away from our Congress the 
right to declare war, and no one would wish to do so. But that is no 
reason why we should not enter into an agreement to defend the im- 
partial judgments of the League and to repress palpable violations of 
its covenants by those who have entered it. The question must al- 
ways be for the decision of Congress whether our obligations under 
the League require us in honor to make war. We have guar- 
anteed the integrity of Cuba, we have guaranteed the integrity of Pan- 
ama. Does that deprive us of sovereignty? Yet we are under an obli- 
gation to make war if another country attacks them. 

Germany Must Disarm First 
Then the question is as to disarmament. The fourth of the Presi- 
dent's fourteen points contains the provision that adequate guaranties 
must be given and taken that national armaments will be reduced to 
the lowest point consistent with domestic safety. That represents an 
aim and aspiration, but it can not have immediate and practical opera- 
tion. We are the victors in this war which grew out of the extensive 
armament and military power of Germany. It will be a legitimate con- 
dition of peace exacted by the victors that Germany shall substantially 
disarm and leave the Allied Powers in a position with armament 
sufficient to keep Germany within law and right. How far disarma- 
ment can be carried must be determined by experience. Disarma- 
ment will be accomplished effectively in great measure by the economic 
pressure that will be felt intensely by all nations after this war, sec- 
ondly by such mutual covenants and general supervision of an inter- 
national council as experience may dictate, and third and ultimately 
by a sense of security in the successful operation of this League to 
Enforce Peace. 

Question of Military Training 
For the time being the people who are afraid that the United States 
will make itself helpless to defend its rights against unjust aggression 



The Obligations of Victory 7 

are unduly exercised. Any practical League of Nations will require 
the United States to maintain a potential military force sufficient to 
comply promptly with its obligations to contribute to an international 
army whenever called upon for League purposes. Such obligation may 
well be made the basis and reason for universal training of youth, 
in accord with the Australian or the Swiss system — a system that 
trains youth for a year physically and mentally and gives them a proper 
sense of duty and obligation to the state. There may be a difference of 
opinion as to whether we should have such a system, but there is noth- 
ing in the League to Enforce Peace and its principles which prevents 
its adoption, and either that or some other means of maintaining an 
adequate force to discharge our obligations under a League must be 
found. While we should lay broad the foundations for a League look- 
ing as far into the future as we may, we must trust to the future to work 
out the application to those principles, to amend the details of our ma- 
chinery and to adapt it to the lessons of experience. We know that the 
real hope of reducing armament and keeping it down is the mainten- 
ance of a League which shall insure justice and apply in its aid the 
major force of the world. As the operation of that League is more and 
more acquiesced in, the possibility of the safe reduction of armaments 
in all countries will become apparent to all and will be realized. 

When Germany May Enter 

Another question that has agitated a good many people is whether 
we should let Germany into the League. That depends upon whether 
Germany makes herself fit for the League. If she gets rid of the Hohen- 
zollerns, if she establishes a real popular government, if she shows by 
her national policies that she has acted on the lessons which the war 
should teach her, indeed if she brings forth works meet for repentance, 
then of course we ought to admit her and encourage her by putting her 
on an equality with other nations and by using her influence and her 
power to make the League more effective. The long drawn out pay- 
ment of indemnities will keep her in a chastened condition and will keep 
alive in her mind the evils of militarism. 

I don't now discuss the difference in the obligations of the members 
of such a League as between the Great Powers and the lesser powers. 
All should have a voice in the general policy of the League, but it is 
well worthy of consideration whether with the burden of enforcing the 
obligations of the League by military force which the greater powers 
must carry, they should not have the larger voice in executive control. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



8 The Obligations of Victory ® ®^1 * 40 ^53 2 

As they are the only ones likely to be able to create the major force of 
the world, they may reasonably claim a right to more administrative 
power. The rights of the smaller nations will be protected in the Con- 
gress in which they have a full voice, and by the impartial judgments of 
the judicial tribunals and the recommendations of the Commission of 
Conciliation. There is not the slightest likelihood that the mere ex- 
ecutive control by the larger powers would lead to oppression of the 
smaller powers because should selfishness disclose itself in one of the 
great powers, we could be confident of the wish of the other great powers 
to repress it. 

Stable Gover. .nents Must Dominate 

One of the difficulties in the mainteiicice of a League of all nations 
will be the instability of the governments of its members if the League 
embraces all nations. On the whole, the greater powers are the more 
stable and the more responsible. It is well therefore that upon them 
shall fall the chief executive responsibility. While the principles of the 
League would prevent interference with the internal governments as a 
general rule, the utter instability of a government might authorize an at- 
tempt to stabilize it. That this might better be done by a disinterested 
League than by a single nation goes without saying. 

The possibilities of many sided world benefit from a League after it 
is well established and is working smoothly, it is hard to overestimate. 
For the present, as the result of this Congress of Nations to meet and 
settle the terms of peace, we may well be content to have a League 
established on broad lines, with principles firmly and clearly stated, and 
with constructive provision^ f or amendment as experience shall indi- 
cate their necessity. 

I verily believe we are in the sight of the Promised Land. I 
hope we may not be denied its enjoyment. 



UBRARY 



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pH8.5 

Mill Run F3-1955 



